Holy Week: Exploring the message of Jesus

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Photos:The faces of Jesus

Diogo Morgado plays Jesus in the 2014 film "Son of God."

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A painted tile artwork from China at the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Israel, depicts Mary and Jesus.

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Spanish painting on elk hide in the San Jose Mission Church, Laguna Pueblo, in New Mexico.

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British actor Robert Powell portrayed Jesus in a 1977 TV series, "Jesus of Nazareth."

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An Iranian Muslim Shiite man, acting as Jesus, center, takes part in the annual religious performance of "Taazieh" in the Iranian town of Noosh Abad on November 12, 2013.

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In Kalacha, Kenya, Jesus is portrayed as a black man, and is often painted this way in remote African villages.

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Indian Christian Alan D'Souza portrays Jesus as he carries a cross through a residential area on Good Friday in Mumbai on March 29, 2013. A procession of Indian Christians from all walks of life participated in the march portraying the suffering meted out by Roman soldiers to Jesus on his way to be crucified.

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Women carry a religious painting as hundreds of Roman Catholics march through Warsaw's downtown demanding more religion in social and political life in Poland on September 19, 2010.

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A mosaic from South Korea at the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Israel, depicts Mary and Jesus.

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This illustration from the BBC Library depicts what scientists believe Jesus might have looked like, based on the skull of a man they found from that time period.

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He says ritual enactment of these three days is reminder that again and again the human condition moves through darkness into light

Jay Parini, a poet and novelist, teaches at Middlebury College in Vermont. He has just published "Jesus: The Human Face of God," a biography of Jesus. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN)Easter is unique on the Christian calendar, a major point in the cycle of the religious year, and one that has always been able to resist the commercialization and culture warring that surrounds Christmas. That's in part because Easter is genuinely about how religious impulses, and patterns, can operate in ways that affect our lives.

Jay Parini

Nevertheless, I'm often surprised by how little people, even those supposedly within the Christian tradition, actually know about what is called Holy Week and its culmination on Easter Sunday. At a time when our culture is roiled by questions of identity and ethics (and tolerance) that have profound religious implications, it's worth pausing to explore this crucial holiday -- and the awareness of the human condition, in all its sadness and glory, that it engenders.

After all, Holy Week calls mostly to those who incline their minds and hearts in its direction with seriousness of intent. Still, the fuss must puzzle those looking on, wondering what it all means. Why do Christians make so much of this springtime week, and make so much of Easter weekend?

There is a phrase that many never come across, even among Christians: Easter Triduum. This refers to the three days of Easter that begin with Good Friday, proceed through Holy Saturday, and conclude with Easter Sunday. It's definitely a progression, although the word itself -- triduum -- can refer to any three days of prayer.

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Pope Francis speaks from St. Peter's Basilica during the "urbi et orbi" blessing for Rome and the world following the Easter Mass on Sunday, April 5, at the Vatican. He lamented the suffering of people in conflicts currently making headlines and asked that bloodshed end in Iraq and Syria.

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Worshippers hold umbrellas under heavy rain during the Easter Mass at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican on April 5.

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Easter horsemen ride near Luebbenau, Germany, on April 5. In the Sorbian residential areas of Lusatia, it's an annual tradition for horsemen wearing festive attire to join the traditional Easter procession to announce the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the neighboring towns with prayers and songs.

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Queen Elizabeth II receives flowers as she leaves the Easter Sunday service on April 5 at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in Windsor, England.

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Pastor Ryan Marr holds DaShawn Murzyn, 7, after he was baptized during Calvary Chapel's Sonrise Baptism Service on Easter morning in a park in St. Petersburg, Florida. The church has been doing the baptism service for 30 years and had 150 people signed up to be baptized in the bay this year.

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Pope Francis holds a candle during the Easter vigil at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican on Saturday, April 4.

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A priest takes a photo as penitents stand during a procession of "La Soledad" in Madrid, Spain, on April 4. Hundreds of such processions take place throughout Spain.

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Roman Taliafero, second from left, leads the sack race against Danny McCleary and Cayten McCleary, right, during an April 4 Easter egg hunt sponsored by People Uniting Neighbors and Churches, at Cork Hill Park in Davenport, Iowa.

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A Catholic devotee portrays Jesus Christ during a re-enactment of the crucifixion in the Petare shantytown in Caracas on Friday, April 3.

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Penitents of the Jesus Yacente brotherhood take part in a Holy Week procession in Zamora, Spain, on Friday, April 3.

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Pope Francis leads the Way of the Cross celebration at the Colosseum in Rome on April 3.

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A masked penitent from La Santa Vera Cruz brotherhood takes part in an Easter procession known as Los Picaos in the small Spanish village of San Vicente de la Sonsierra on April 3.

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An effigy of Jesus Christ is at the center of a Holy Week procession on the beach in Valencia, Spain, on April 3.

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Penitents in San Pedro Cutud, Philippines, kneel in front of crosses while whipping their backs in a self-flagellation ritual on April 3.

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A Christian in Mumbai, India, plays the role of Jesus Christ during a re-enactment April 3 to mark Good Friday.

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Penitents hold torches during a Good Friday procession April 3 in Sorrento, Italy.

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Catholics in Wonogiri, Indonesia, re-enact Christ's crucifixion on April 3.

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Penitents take part in the procession of the Exaltacion de la Santa Cruz brotherhood during Holy Week in Zaragoza, Spain, on Thursday, April 2. Hundreds of processions take place throughout Spain during Holy Week.

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Boys dressed as shepherds take part in the Children's Holy Thursday Procession in Tunja, Colombia, on April 2. In this annual procession, now in its 55th year, children depict the key moments of the passion, death and resurrection of Christ.

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Children carry a platform holding a small statue of Jesus during a Holy Week procession in Antigua, Guatemala, on Wednesday, April 1.

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A man carries away a sculpture of Jesus after it was paraded at a nighttime Holy Week procession in Puellaro, Ecuador, on Tuesday, March 31. The procession, called "Procesion de Andas," is an annual tradition. Those who carry the heavy sculptures on large platforms inherit the responsibility from their parents or a friend and consider it an honor.

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Penitents take part in a Palm Sunday procession in Pamplona, Spain, on Sunday, March 29. For Christians, Palm Sunday marks Jesus Christ's entrance into Jerusalem, when his followers laid palm branches in his path.

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A homeless man begging for alms sits outside the Metropolitan Cathedral during a Palm Sunday procession March 29 in Managua, Nicaragua.

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Nuns hold palm fronds during a Palm Sunday procession on the Mount of Olives, overlooking Jerusalem's Old City on March 29.

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A member of the El Despojado brotherhood takes a break from helping carry a platform with a statue of Jesus Christ during a procession in Seville, Spain, on March 29.

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Nigerians participate in a Palm Sunday service March 29 at the Our Lady of the Apostles Catholic church in Kaduna, Nigeria.

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Catholics pray on a hill with wooden crosses in Oshmiany, Belarus, on March 29.

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A church volunteer carries an armful of palm fronds to be given to parishioners at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Managua on March 29.

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Christians in Jerusalem's Old City gather March 29 at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is traditionally believed to be the site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ.

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Christians collect palm fronds for a Palm Sunday service in Secunderabad, India, on March 29.

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Hooded penitents from the La Paz brotherhood walk to a church in Seville on March 29.

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Easter Triduum has a kind of major prologue in Maundy Thursday, the day when, by tradition, Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem on the night before he was crucified. The idea of Holy Communion begins with this meal, which was a Passover meal.

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Jesus, of course, was Jewish, as were all his disciples. He was never trying to erase Judaism and found a new religion. His work involved modifying and extending Judaism in fresh ways.

On Maundy Thursday, Christians sometimes practice the washing of feet, recalling that Jesus washed the very dusty feet of his disciples at the Last Supper as a way of demonstrating profound humility -- showing that he was himself a servant -- and modeling a kind of ideal behavior.

Good Friday isn't, in fact, so good. It's the day of the crucifixion, when Jesus was scourged and beaten, forced to carry his cross to Golgotha, the "place of the skull," and nailed to the cross itself for what must have been an agonizing death. The actual scene of the Crucifixion varies from gospel to gospel, as do his last words, assembled into the so-called "seven last words" of Jesus by adding up fragments from different gospels.

Jesus experienced the full range of human emotions, Aslan writes, from rage to resignation.

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The idea of God born as a happy and helpless child inspired Aslan's own youthful and brief conversion to Christianity.

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Here Jesus is shown angrily purging the Temple in Jerusalem of money changers and traders.

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Jewish leaders tried to take advantage of Jesus' zealotry, Aslan writes, by trapping him into saying that Jews should not pay taxes to Caesar.

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Jesus was also called the "Man of Sorrows," an emotion captured here by Leonardo da Vinci.

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A forlorn Jesus is shown here crowned with thorns in a painting by Benedetto Bonfigli.

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British actor Robert Powell, shown here in Franco Zeffirelli's 1977 TV mini-series, "Jesus of Nazareth," is one of many actors who've tried to convey the complex emotions of Jesus.

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Some of these words are quotations, as when Jesus asked God why he has abandoned him: This is a quote from the 22nd Psalm, which opens: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Good Friday is a day of death, sacrifice, displacement, fear.

Holy Saturday is probably the least understood day of the Easter Triduum. It's a passageway between the darkness of the crucifixion and the bright hope of Easter. This day occupies an anxious space in human experience, when the certain knowledge of something dreadful isn't quite erased -- can't be erased -- simply by hope. It's a day of depression, a day of suspension.

Then comes Easter, with the aura of the resurrection. I'm always moved by the deep symbolism of this mythic moment, when the body of Christ becomes what is called a "glorified body." This was not, as I've said elsewhere, the Great Resuscitation, although that's part of it, too. Resurrection implies a total transformation, something beyond the physical realm.

It's very important that almost nobody who encounters Jesus after the resurrection can really recognize him, know him, or understand him as the same person who was with them before he was crucified. Easter embraces the great mystery of resurrection, with its promise of transformation -- a shift from one form to another, and a change that moves well beyond any literal understanding.

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The three days of Easter, the Triduum, occur only once a year on the calendar. But the really interesting thing is that we all experience the pattern of the three days again and again. We find ourselves emptied out in small ways, nailed to our own trees in life, embarrassed or broken by life.

It was the Buddha who famously observed that life is suffering. Good Friday embodies the Christian version of that truth. Jesus suffered in the way all of us must suffer. We must all die, perhaps less ignominiously but just as certainly. Our friends and families must die. We all experience illness, loss, sadness, a loss of confidence, darkness. This is simply part of the human experience.

We dive again and again into Holy Saturday, too -- a period of transition, when the bleakness of suffering is perhaps slightly behind us but nothing restorative seems in view. We know well this in-between time; it's an anxious passage, with only a glimmer on the horizon of potential hope.

And we've all been resurrected, again and again, perhaps in tiny ways. This is the joy of Easter, and it's not something reserved for one day on the calendar. It's there whenever we experience what T.S. Eliot once called the "timeless moment," which can only occur -- paradoxically -- in time itself. It's a mystical point where timelessness intersects with time.

I suspect we all experience the Triduum frequently, sometimes more than once in a single day. But the ritual enactment of these three days of the Easter season reminds all of those who practice Christianity -- and perhaps those who don't -- that we should expect to move through darkness into light. It's a pattern that describes a kind of spiritual progression. It's good cause for celebration, too: and one that won't easily be co-opted by secular culture.